Submission moves are a large part of every pro wrestler's move set. Whenever we see a submission move applied, the wrestlers act in a way that makes us believe that the person who is trapped in the hold is experiencing the worst pain of their life.

The wrestlers do not really put much pressure into the hold, otherwise the injury rate in pro wrestling would skyrocket.

This article is part one in a series. The articles will talk about some famous submission holds, and what would happen to a person if the move was actually performed to its fullest extent.

The Walls of Jericho, which is a variation of the Boston Crab, is the finishing submission hold of Chris Jericho.

The move is applied when one wrestler hooks another wrestler's legs under his arms, turns them over on their stomach, pulls back on the legs and sits down on the lower back.

In this move, the legs are bent at the knee. This is normal for the human body. When the legs are bent like this, the quadriceps muscle is stretched. How far the wrestler bends the legs of his opponent backwards determines how stretched out the quadriceps get.

The quadriceps muscles get stretched because of the patella tendon. This tendon is attached to the muscle and to the knee. If enough force is applied, the tendon can be ripped off of either the quadriceps or the knee.

Picture from directory.leadmaverick.com

Moving up from the knee lies the femur. The femur is the bone in the thigh. It is the longest and strongest bone in the body. At the top of the leg, the femur attaches to the hip by a ball and socket. The bottom of the femur attaches to the lower bones in the leg, the tibia and fibula, through ligaments.

The bone itself is straight and does not bend. When the wrestler pulls back on his opponent's legs and begins to sit down, the femur turns into a lever. If real pressure was applied, the ligaments, which attach the femur to the lower leg, would be torn. The top of the femur could also be pulled out of the hip joint.

The last part of the body that is affected is the lower back. The lower back is made up of the lumbar spine, which is attached to the coccyx.

With the legs being used as a lever, and the wrestler sitting on the lower back, the coccyx is pulled upward. This upward movement forces the lumbar part of the back to become more curved. This would create space between each vertebra that could lead to herniated discs. This would also damage nerves that run down to our legs, causing chronic pain and numbness.

The wrestlers do not go out and try to injure each other. Some moves that we see would not do as much damage as we are led to be believe. Other moves, such as the Boston Crab, if applied with full pressure, have the potential to end a wrestler's career, and likely alter the way their body would work for the rest of their lives.

Picture from santispilates.com

Part two will be the figure four leg lock.

Louie Babcock has over five years experience in emergency medicine, and is studying medicine at the University of Minnesota.